PETA ‘Turkeys’ Target Holiday Travellers With ‘ThanksVegan’ Plea
For Immediate Release:
October 8, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Just a stone’s throw away from a massive Lilydale turkey slaughterhouse, PETA is offering holiday travellers some ThanksVegan food for thought by covering local buses and the airport with the images of turkeys proclaiming, “I’m ME, Not MEAT”—and to help everyone enjoy a bird-friendly holiday, the group will also donate savory Tofurky roasts to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
“When people realize that turkeys love their families, feel pain and fear, and value their lives, they’re eager to put a Tofurky on the table,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA offers recipes, shopping tips, and more so that everyone can enjoy a delicious ThanksVegan meal that leaves gentle birds in peace.”
Turkeys can live up to 10 years, but those raised for food are normally slaughtered when they’re between 12 and 26 weeks old—and millions are killed each year for Thanksgiving in Canada alone. The young birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles and dragged through an electrified bath, and they’re often still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks.
Meat-free meals are already on many Canadians’ minds, as the number of “vegan” online searches in Canada grew by 113% from 2016 to 2020. This year, Sobeys, Save-On-Foods, Buy-Low Foods, IGA, and other major grocery chains are teaming up with PETA to showcase their ready-to-roast vegan turkeys and other vegan holiday fare. The Very Good Butchers, founded in Victoria and with products available from coast to coast, will also spread the #ThanksVegan word on social media, and people across the country can take advantage of PETA’s ultimate Canadian ThanksVegan guide.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
